Finding Your Folks

By JUDY FOWLER KILGORE
jkilgore@thecitizennews.

I receive many questions, particularly from those who are just starting out, asking, “Why are there so many mistakes in the census?” or “Why doesn’t the date on the tombstone agree with what’s in the Bible?” In other words, why are the records wrong?

Well, any record is only as accurate as the person submitting the information and, in turn, as accurate as the person who recorded that information.

I suppose the most inaccurate-prone records are census records, but all records, even official ones from the courthouse, are subject to error. If you are nit-picky to the point of being fanatic about details and not able to use the word “about,” or the phrase, “ ... another source has ....,” then genealogy is going to drive you crazy.

Why are records so full of errors? There are many, many reasons, but I’ll only give you a few of them.

Let’s take census records first since they seem to be the records with the most inaccuracies.

When the census taker arrived to retrieve his information, often times the head of the house or his/her spouse was not at home and he would get the information the best way he could. Sometimes it was from neighbors, sometimes from children or other relatives who were living there but could only guess at the answers to some of the personal questions.

Sometimes there are dead giveaways that someone else gave the information. In one census, one of my relatives was living with his father and in the relationship of his sister to the head of house (his father), he put “sister” instead of “daughter.” That was a big red flag to me and told me to watch for more inaccuracies in that family’s information.

In the case of children’s successive ages and birth places through the years, you may see that a person’s age and birthplace change drastically as he gets older. Let’s face it. People lied then and they still lie now about their age. And it’s not confined mostly to women as some may think. A general rule of thumb is to trust the information on children in their earlier censuses when their parents more than likely gave the information.

Birth places are another thing that sometimes change from year to year. Sometimes it was for the above reasons and sometimes it was because children actually didn’t know where they were born.

I have another example of this, too. In the 1880 Cleburne County, Ala. census, all five children of my great-grandparents were listed as having been born in Georgia. But when those children grew up, married and appeared in the census with their own families, three out of five said they were born in Alabama. My reasoning was this: Three of them were infants when they made the trip from Campbell County to Cleburne. Since Alabama was the only home they had ever known, they assumed they were born there.

In the census you will also find names of the same family spelled a number of ways. The reason for this most of you probably already know — illiteracy.

Many people couldn’t read and write, even into the 20th century. There was nothing to be ashamed of. The primary occupation of most men up through the 1800s was farming. Children were much more valuable as farm hands than as scholars. So, when the census taker asked their names, and they couldn’t spell it, he wrote exactly what he heard. Or he wrote the spelling of that name as he knew it to be from common use. I have seen the name McWhorter as McWhirter, McWherter, MacWhorter and even Mackquarter. Surnames will lead you on a merry chase when you try to do an Internet search.

Another record that often has errors is the death certificate. The information given to the undertaker is usually passed on by the next of kin — a son, daughter, sister, brother or whatever relative is handling arrangements. Sometimes they don’t know the actual date of birth or maiden name of the deceased’s mother. This also leads to errors on tombstones, since information for that record also is given by relatives.

One of my Paynes is buried in Texas with her birth date glaringly wrong. Her birth year is given as that of her brothers, who were twins, born in 1854. She was actually born in 1856, as the 1900 census shows (when she probably gave the information herself). Her age with her mother in the 1860 and 1870 census also reflects the correct age for her to have been born in 1856. Relatives in Texas never would have known this had we not caught up with each other and swapped information, sources and proof.

Marriage records also fall into the error-prone category. And, once again, it is the case of a court clerk doing his best to spell the name as it sounded if the bride and groom could not read or write.

I have even seen name spelling variations within the same “official” document. On a Meriwether deed, my 4th great-uncle, Richard Sloan, appears as both “Sloan” and “Slone.” His children used both spellings also.

So, when you come across these discrepancies, don’t panic and have a heart attack. Just be cool and make a note of the differences. One of these days you may find something that pins it down — and, again, you may not. But, if you think genealogy is an exact science, you better stop doing it — now.

I welcome your letters about genealogy and info on south metro Atlanta families. Send them to The Citizen, Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; e-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com.

Until next week, happy hunting!

(Judy regrets that time does not permit her to do personal research for others.)

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